Technology | Media | Telecommunications

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Global Data Breach Costs will Reach $2.1 Trillion by 2019

As more business communication infrastructure moves online, it eventually becomes the target of someone that will attempt to negatively impact that enterprise. Computer crime is a growing threat to corporations and individuals who are increasingly dependent upon the Global Networked Economy.

Mobile devices with internet access amplifies that commercial dependency, and the greater potential for harm.

The growth of at-risk online commercial database access via the public internet will increase the cost of data breaches to $2.1 trillion globally by 2019 -- that's almost four times the estimated cost of these IT security breaches in 2015, according to the latest market study by Juniper Research.

That being said, their latest findings indicate that the majority of these new security breaches will likely come from criminal access to existing IT data centers and associated network infrastructure.

While new threats targeting mobile devices and the Internet of Things (IoT) are being reported, the number of virus infected devices is minimal in comparison to more traditional computing devices.

The study also highlights the increasing sophistication of cyber crime, with the emergence of cyber crime products -- such as the availability of malware creation software for purchase -- over the past year, as well as the reported decline in casual activist hacks.

Hacktivism has become more successful and less prolific, according to the Juniper assessment. In future, they expect fewer attacks overall, but more successful ones.

"Currently, we aren't seeing much dangerous mobile or IoT malware because it's not profitable," said James Moar, research analyst at Juniper Research.

He believes the kind of cyber threats we'll see will continue to be people locked-out of their device until they pay the hacker ransom to regain access, or where the device is hijacked as part of a hacker botnet.

At this time, with the absence of a direct payout from IoT security breaches, there apparently is little motive for online criminals to develop the required hacking tools. Of course, that situation could change over time.

Other key findings from the market study include:

Nearly 60 percent of anticipated data breaches worldwide in 2015 will occur in North America, but this proportion will decrease over time as other countries become both richer and more vulnerable.

The average cost of a data breach in 2020 will exceed $150 million by 2020, as more business infrastructure gets connected to the public internet.